Whole Grain Vegan Baking: Blog Tour (& Giveaway!)

Their last book, Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day was probably my favorite vegan cookbook from last year. I love it so much. So, when they asked me to participate in a blog tour for this new book, I jumped at the chance. Their publisher, Fair Winds Press, offered me a copy to review, but - uh - I had already bought myself a copy! So, lucky for you all, I've got a copy to give away.

The first thing I made from WGVB was this Hearty Barley Fruit Bread, based on an old family recipe from Celine. I loved, loved, loved this bread so much. I want to eat it every day for the rest of my life. It truly is hearty, and filled with walnuts, dried figs, candied orange peel, and warming spices. It's dense and totally delicious. I really look forward to making it again soon.

Bonus: I got to use up some of my homemade candied orange peel. That recipe really made a LOT of candied orange peel!

Next up, I made the Lemony Spelt Scones (notice theme of using my homegrown citrus! - these called for lemon juice and lemon zest!). I really enjoyed these scones, especially since I hardly ever make scones. The texture was just perfect: dry -- but not too dry, dense -- but not too dense. They were perfectly crumbly and went great with my morning cuppa joe.

All of the recipes call for whole grain flours (obviously!), but also un-refined sugars, and generally quite wholesome ingredients. I suppose if you are on a super tight budget, or don't have any good natural foods stores around, this could be a bummer. But, I've been happily surprised to easily find every ingredient I've needed for these recipes in the bulk bins at my local hippy store. These scones, for example, call for Whole Spelt Flour, Brown Rice flour, Sucanat (unrefined sugar), and other more standard ingredients. Nothing too hard to track down!

Finally, I made a beautiful batch of Hidden Treasure Muffins! I love that name. These are super lemony whole-grain muffins with secret jam hidden inside! What fun. I used some apricot jam that a friend gave us. :) I made these for my mom on Mothers' Day. They were so great - a little bit sweet and naughty, but also hearty and wholesome. I'll definitely make these again!

Besides all the great recipes, there are a lot of great things to love about this book:

~ Beautiful layout: glorious pictures (taken by Celine!), one recipe per page, super cute fonts, and even the paper is smooth and matte and super fun to feel. This sort of thing really affects how much I can groove on a cookbook.
~ Recipes give weights AND measures. I really love that.
~ The recipes are totally awesome! I have so many more marked down that I want to make:
Whole Grain Artisan Bread, Lemon Ginger Rolls, Pesto Knots, Garlic Naan, Nectarine Topped Oatmeal Cake... and on and on!

Yes! YOU CAN HAZ A COPY!

Fair Winds Press is offering one copy to a winner (open to U.S. & Canada only, sorry!). Just leave a comment here on this post, and you'll be entered to win. Be sure to leave your blogger contact or email, because I am not going to spend hours hunting you down! I'll pick a winner in one week - next Wednesday, May 22nd.